This technique can be used with scraps of almost any size - these fabric tiles are one inch squares.

My cutting template came from an empty plastic milk bottle. I wrapped it in waste cloth and warmed it under a low iron to relax the curve, then stashed it under a big stack of heavy books until cool. Opaque plastic works best as you can easily trace a template straight from the grid on your cutting mat.

Trace a bunch of shapes on the paper of your double-sided appliqué interfacing:

Then iron onto the wrong side of your scraps:

Let cool and then cut them out.

Another great thing about one inch fabric tiles is that it's easy to test out designs on your cutting board, using the grid as a guide.

Replicate the one inch grid on your chosen backing fabric with water soluble marker:

One of the problems with fixing the tiles in place is the need to put waste cloth on top of them before ironing. If you lay them all out it is near impossible to keep them all in position as you place on the cloth - so I iron mine on one line at a time.

I just iron each line lightly and quickly, enough so they won't move, then move on to the next line (don't use steam or your water soluble grid will disappear).

Once I have all the lines in place I then give the whole piece a thorough going-over (hee) with steam or a bit of water on the cloth to make sure those suckers are well stuck.

I like to further fix my squares with hand sewing and always draw a guiding grid because I am terrible at keeping straight.

Then it's up to you what you want to do with it! It's a very colourful, scrappy canvas for whatever purpose you decide.

I chose to embroider over mine. I sketched out a design and used the old window light-box trick to trace it onto my canvas. (If your design is very fine this method won't work so well, the tiles make it hard to trace though.)

It takes a little more effort to bunch through the extra layer of fabric, but nothing too difficult.

16 comments:

how on earth do you do it girl. i turn my back for a few weeks and return to find all manner of travel stories, amazing pics, crafting goodness and shenanigans of four wee kiddies. i'm worn out (and a wee bit envious) just reading and drooling. missed you xx

OMG I have a bunch of triangles of gorgeous Art Gallery Fabric leftover from a quilt.(.Knew I was hoarding them for a reason) how cute would this be using up some of those ---love it..and love that I am posting after @Maureen Cracknell Handmade (my latest idol)..thanks so much Kristy..your site is luscious...cannot wait to dive right into it!